Almost forgot to mention Paint.NET, a freeware (and open-source) photo editing package that’s pretty impressive. It’s designed to be a replacement for the standard Windows Paint package, and to be as easy to use. I’ve been testing the betas for a month or two, and version 2.5 final was just released. It’s actually faster for editing than ACDSee, which I’ve been using for years. Features include layers, undo history, alpha transparency, the standard photo manipulation tools like resize/levels/crop, and magic wand/selection tools. Worth a look.